New Ax: Fender Deluxe Lonestar Stratocaser Self Setup

What a wonderful day.  We have a tradition-- every tenth year anniversary, my spouse and I exchange gifts early. This December is our 30th anniversary and we were exchanging special gifts two months before the actual date!  I was given this beautiful Fender Deluxe Lone Star Stratocaster guitar.  I am thrilled beyond words. It is a 2008, and just barely has any playing wear, at all.  It is in beautiful condition and reminds me that there are plenty of great guitars out there that are hardly used-- seems we should in that sense be recycling them.  Many buy instruments and never learn to play as they intended.

I spent the afternoon setting it up myself-- something I would have paid someone else to do in the past.  I set up the tremolo system, making it flush with the body.  I am pretty much a hardtail strat person.  No need in my mind for a wammy bar.  Also, I then set the bridges for the action I wanted, setting them in the same arching pattern that the fretboard follows (a 9-1/2 inch radius).  Next, I adjusted the bridges for intonation so that my guitar would be consistently in tune all the way up the neck.  Finally,  I adjusted the height of the pickups for optimal amplification without any problems with strings being too close to the magnets.  This guitar plays and sounds wonderfully!  A great set of pickups-- Texas Specials in the neck and middle spot, and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates Humbucker in the bridge position.  These pickups are quiet and the sound is rich and full!  The neck is a nice tinted color, the frets are medium jumbo and it possesses a stylish tortoise shell pickguard.  The pickups really warm up my VHT Special 6 tube amplifier and cabinet set.